I uploaded photos of this trip in my Florence '06 gallery

Kris agrees that Italian coffee is quite unique

Kris came through my part of town to mooch for a while on his way back from a US work junket. Not content with the London sights he hit me up for a trip around Italy, a land I had talked up as one of the food and coffee meccas of the world (at least, its in the top two of the three or four countries I've visited...)

Unable to withstand his puppydog eyes and constant whining about shitty London coffee, and him being only slightly satiated by the gorgeous produce in the Borough Markets, I finally organised a long weekend in the most medieval part of Tuscany I could find - Florence.

A little research showed that it was trivial to get from Pisa to Florence in 45 minutes or so by train, and with flights to and from Pisa starting out at 1p before tax our agenda was quickly set. I'll spare you an account of the journey and get right into the good stuff - the awesome food.

Day 1 (2006-11-18)

Kris loved to dance on the cobbled streets

Kris was like a kid in a candy store on the Ponte Veccio

I managed to snap a quick shot of Kris in front of the Ponte Veccio
bridge as he ran crazily in circles

We must have walked into a hundred of these little stores

The first place we went (after checking into the Hostel Archi Rossi, where the plaster seems to be held in place with graffiti) was a restaurant. Hungry, we didn't really want to walk around looking for somewhere awesome so we just jumped into the first one we found, and I couldn't have been happier with the decision. The shop front was very representative of what I have come to see as Italian fare in general - simplicity and good taste. Two archways displayed a rustic uncluttered kitchen with a large kiln dominating my attention, and the other archway led directly from the street into an unpretentious eating area.

Cheese and anchovy bruschetta - delicious. Kris' main (lunch in Italy seems to consist of first mains - pasta or soup - and second mains - steak or fish. We weren't up for this) was a delicious, simple but rich chicken cacciatore, and mine was a stuffed rabbit. Neither was served with any side dishes to speak of, but they were honestly not missed.

A bottle of wine (from the Tuscan Chianti region) and a few shots of grappa, followed by some espressos, and we were walking out the door totally contented with all of Florence still waiting.

We wandered past the Duomo, but at the time I was honestly more interested in planning dinner, having been bitten by the eating bug (it was a serious condition that I am now on medication for.) Florence (Firenze in Italian) is largely a warren of beautiful but narrow cobbled streets joining a mess of plazas together. Each plaza has some sort of theme, and on the weekends street markets make large portions of all this quite unnavigable. It didn't take long to realise that there were some specialty goods available in this city that I owed to myself to investigate further on our stay - namely the food and coffee (of course), good quality yet affordable leather goods, and papier mache masks (my brother Matty bought one back from Venice when he was last there and I knew instantly that I wanted at least one.)

So by this time, my agenda included: eating dinner at this place called Il Latino that I'd seen referenced in a couple of tourist books, buy a mask, buy some leather gloves, and eat more stuff. Visiting the Uffizi gallery and the Duomo were also on the list, but I don't like being told what I must do, Kris and I both decided we want to set our own agendas. Kris had some other stuff on his agenda, but I'll leave it to another time to talk about that.

We swiftly discovered this: if you walk along the north side of the river you'll only really find the Ponte Veccio. The Ponte Veccio is awesome (basically a beautiful jewellry market on a really wide bridge) but my point is you should walk around the warren of streets instead, but definitely with a map or you'll get lost. And how!

Salvatore and Francesca: regaled.

Anyway, at about dinner time we found ourselves walking around the streets on the south side of the river. Seeing one restaurant that looked pretty popular with the locals we decided to try our luck. 20 minutes wait later we were sat in a small alcove in the corner of the restaurant elbow-to-elbow with a Sicilian couple. Entree: chicken liver pate on bread and something else, then 'small pig' for me and veal scalopine for Kris. The small pig seemed literally to be a small pig that had been roasted then cut into once-centimeter-thick slices across. My plate was one such slice with spine up the top, kidneys still in their anatomically correct locations, and crackling skin surrounding. The veal was overdone, but who gives a shit what Kris' meal was like?

The best part of the first night was without a doubt Salvatore and Francesca - the Sicilian couple who after we had finished our main courses leaned across and asked whether we were American or English, as they couldn't spot our accents. 6 rounds of grappa later we were getting kicked out of the restaurant (they were closing, we were the last patrons left) and exchanging promises to meet again when they came across to London (the 1st December - I'm looking forward to it.) We had learned several names for things that should probably not be named in polite company, they had been entertained by our descriptions on the differences between Australian and English women. That's probably another blog for another time though.

Day 2 (2006-11-19): The moon hits our eye

The next morning we were out about 30 minutes after waking up (the hostel had that kind of effect on us.) We spent most of the day in the Uffizi gallery. This is where we realised how crazy these Florentians are about their Leonardo Da Vinci. Anyway, some good shit in there, two thumbs up.

The staff of Il Latino were quite embarrassed by Kris' constant
enthusiastic exclamations of adoration

Dinner rocked - there's no two ways to put it. Il Latino provided quite simply one of the best dining experiences I've ever had. Extremely happy and friendly service, the chubby Italian men behind the counter and on the floor spend their few free moments up at the food counter cutting up large chunks of cold meat for the entrees, sampling liberally as they go. The ceilings are decorated with hanging salted parmahams and the rafters with local wines. Each table is equipped with large loaves of bread and home branded Tuscan wines - both provided completely gratis.

Ordering didn't involve a menu, merely the waiter asking 'would you like me to bring you some starters?' and then a quick hustle around a corner where he somehow initiated a process that involved five different starter dishes coming out in rapid succession. Most delicious of these was doubtlessly the chicken liver pate, which I refused to order again subsequently, knowing that I had from that moment been ruined of the experience.

Second I ordered the 'vegetable and bread' soup, suddenly concious that I would have difficulty doing justice to a full sized main meal portion. Kris ordered the ravioli. Both these meals completely blew us away and left us constantly exclaiming on how simple such delicious food could be.

We skipped mains in the end and shared a large desserts platter with the American and Italian girls sitting on one side of us. The Japanese girls to my left were also pretty amusing to watch, having decided they should get the steak main without apparently realising it would weigh about half of their own weight. They must have spent more time taking photos of their meal than actually eating it.

Day 3 (2006-11-20): Lost in Firenze

We must have stood entranced by this gypsy band for hours

The third day was mostly a write-off, we spent literally about 10 hours solidly walking around. This was a direct result of me letting Kris navigate for a while, though I'm sure he'll take umbrage at me telling you this. The third day also marked the first time we had pizza - a slice each from a cafe along our travels. Delicious, as could be expected. Got home at 11pm totally fucked. We spent about half of this time looking for chocolate and chilli gelati - something I'd had in Rome and really wanted Kris to experience. In this mission we failed. We did see a Gypsy band though, playing festively on the street till they got shut down by The Man.

I should mention the restaurant at which we ate this day. Our criteria may have been skewed by our disappointment on discovering that Il Latino was closed and we decided to go to the shiniest closest restaurant we could find. Turns out it was more focussed towards romance, less towards truly value-for-money food. My love-heart shaped way-too-floury ravioli was the give-away. My lesson is that the well lit simpler places are the best.

Day 4 (2006-11-21): A train too soon

Little known fact: you can't buy set-squares
in Pisa

The fourth day was good, but we made the mistake of choosing to spend most of it in Pisa. Don't get me wrong - its beautiful and theres plenty to do there, but it's not a scratch on Florence. Our self-imposed crusade that evening was to find some good waffles with gelati, which we didn't manage to do.

Anyway, Florence rocks so hard that I wouldn't at all mind setting aside my 'don't visit the same place twice' doctrine to revisit it anytime anybody wanted to. Anyone?

Next on the list: Tool concert tomorrow night, Matthew arrives on the 30th Nov, then Christmas in Wales on the 24th Dec. I should note also that my first pay-packet comes in this coming Tuesday (I am completely broke now.)